C ity Manager Mike O'Brien has done much to mitigate the scourge of foreclosures in the city.

Banks foreclosing on properties here, for example, are required to provide a $5,000 bond which is used by the city to maintain the foreclosed properties.

But the city's response, according to members of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team, has been largely directed at making sure banks take care of foreclosed properties and not enough at helping people stay in their homes.

As such, the grass-roots organization would like to see Worcester adopt a foreclosure mediation program that would force lenders to sit down with homeowners and try to work out a deal, before attempting to foreclose on those properties.

Jon Marien, organizer with the anti-foreclosure team, notes that a number of states have implemented such a policy, and that some cities and towns in Massachusetts, such as Springfield and Lynn, are pursuing similar mandated programs.

The positive impact of mandated mediation, according to Mr. Marien, is without question.

In Massachusetts, for example, Mr. Marien said, homeowners who try to work through the foreclosure process on their own stand a 20 percent chance of retaining their homes. If homeowners work through local organizations, such as NeighborWorks, the chances of retaining their homes rise to 40 percent. However, in a state such as Connecticut, which has a mandated foreclosure mediation program, the success rate climbs to 80 percent, he said.

Worcester city councilors have largely been supportive of the anti-foreclosure team's agenda and were expected to vote last night on approving a mandated mediation ordinance. Mr. O'Brien, however, is still not sold on the legal or practical grounds for such an ordinance.

Such measures, he said, should come from the state, and more appropriately from the federal government.

It has been his experience, he said, that big banks and mortgage companies do not care to bother with local communities, oftentimes snubbing the city's legal efforts to get their attention.

"This shouldn't automatically be a local issue," he said.

"I have been in the forefront of this crisis, working with local banks, working with the local community in the face of a crisis brought about by greedy people who walked away with trillions of dollars in taxpayers' money."

Indeed, the past months the government has sought fines of almost $900 million from Bank of America and some $13 billion from JPMorgan Chase for tactics the government believes contributed to the housing crisis and the foreclosure tsunami that is still ruining neighborhoods and people's lives.

Bank of America, which bought Countrywide Financial in 2008, was found to have defrauded the government, by selling bad Countrywide loans to Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, mortgage companies run by the government.

Countrywide, according to the government, conducted its mortgage business by promoting quantity rather than quality and by eliminating steps designed to ensure the soundness of loans. In the case of JPMorgan, the government said the company knowingly misrepresented the quality of the loans underlying some $33 billion in mortgage bonds it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I agree with the city manager that the onus shouldn't be on the local community to clean up the mess the big banks made.

Unfortunately, the local community is all these distressed homeowners have at the moment. City government is their last resort, and we should do all we can to help them.

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